


Panicked and Concerned

by ajita



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Hurt/Comfort, Infinity War (Marvel Comics), IronStrange, M/M, Minor Injuries, Panic Attacks, Team Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-04
Updated: 2018-05-04
Packaged: 2019-05-02 00:58:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14533233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ajita/pseuds/ajita
Summary: [INFINITY WAR SPOILERS!] After Doctor Strange looks into all the possible futures, the crew on Titan considers their situation. As others begin discussing their options, or just making new friends, Stephen Strange falls silent and gains the attention of a concerned Tony Stark.





	Panicked and Concerned

Tony felt troubled. 

Ever since the wizard had stopped glowing green Tony had become increasingly concerned about his mental state. The Magic Man looked shocked, much less now than immediately after falling from his floating time loop coma into Tony's arms, but all the signs of heavy anxiety were still there. Very familiar signs to Tony. Shallow breathing, eyes dim and distant, unfocused, sweat droplets gliding down his bloodied temple. The man was shivering even if Tony was sure he'd noticed the Living Blanket on his shoulders hugging him closer - and if anything, that creepy thing looked rather warm. There should be no shivering. 

His eyes followed the Doctor's arms to his scarred hands, trembling and twisting together in front of him. Shaky fingers lost without direction and constantly switching their position, maybe tracing some mute spells into the still air. It was probably easy to fall into those familiar patterns in search for comfort. Probably made him recall how strong he was. 

The Sorcerer's strength was something Tony could acknowledge, even if he'd known the man - or the existence of this kind of magic - for exactly, what, few hours? He felt just as lost as the sorcerer looked. 

Tony turned his gaze away and sighed. His shoulders felt tense and a familiar ache burned and twisted in his gut. It wasn't physical pain - it was fear, maybe. The stress of everything weighted him down heavily and the speed with which things had progressed caused his blood to turn into liquid adrenaline. At least he could count on not dozing off in the middle of saving the universe. Tony turned his focus to Peter. The kid had immersed himself into a verbal battle with the so-called Star-Lord, who's insane babbling was backed up by his goofy Space Rangers. It's weird how easily they mingled. Tony was almost jealous of the kid who seemed so unaffected, even excited, to be out here in outer space fulfilling his heroic duties. Tony dropped his gaze. Even the thoughts in his head sounded wrong. Distorted and terrible. Peter must be scared out of his mind. 

One of the Star-Lord's creepy sidekicks was silent, seemingly unable to get a word through the continuous chatter. Mantis, she said her name was. Tony found himself inching closer to the alien woman who's pitch black eyes were glued on Strange, a look of curiosity and concern on her face. 

"Hey. " 

Her black eyes turned to Tony as they fell into a hushed conversation that led them away from the group. 

\----- 

After a few minutes they returned, their short absence seemingly having made no impact on the discussion between Parker and Star-Lord. Their friendly word-fight was eagerly encouraged by the Tattooed Giant's excited howls. Mantis offered Tony a crooked smile as she stepped back into the group, while Tony continued a few steps right to Strange's side. While Mantis had promised to keep a closer eye on Peter, Tony promised to check up on the Wizard. 

"Come on. Here, come with me." He said. 

Not waiting for a reaction he grabbed the taller man's arm, leading him a short walk away from the group. Strange followed without attempting to shake him off, practically radiating stressful tension. Tony guided him to sit down on a set of stairs that rose from the rubble, maybe once leading to the doorway of a huge building. The ruins of a civilization. Strange took a seat willingly. His brows were tightly knit together and eyes sharply following Tony's movements. Tony placed a small case on the stairs, opening it and revealing some sort of first aid supplies. A couple of rolls of thin white bandages, some metal jars containing medicine, medical tools, random tools, alien junk, a bottle of booze; Also some disinfectant and cotton pads and a tin of pain killers - as Mantis had pointed out to him. 

"Stark -" 

The Sorcerer growled defensively and grabbed a hold of his wrist before he could reach out for any of the case's contents. Tony met his defiance with matching strength and determination. 

"Listen, dude. You look a bit, you know, all over the place. This is not optional." 

He stared at the pale Sorcerer but didn't move until he felt the grasp of twitchy fingers loosen on his wrist. The man's gaze slipped out of focus again and drifted away from him, as if seeing something straight through Tony. Troubling. 

"Breathe." 

Strange only shivered in response, lost in his own weird world. 

"Breathe." 

Tony repeated louder and decided to leave the medical case for now. He moved in front of the man, getting his attention and kneeling down on one knee, their faces sort of leveled. 

"What?" 

Strange hissed stubbornly. His threatening voice didn't feel like it was backed up by any real fighting spirit. He instinctively pulled away. 

"I said -" Tony paused. "Breathe." 

Concern tightened his features. He shifted closer and made sure to cover the line of sight to the rest of their companions. Tony raised his hands and took a firm hold of the Sorcerer's upper arms. He was acting on instinct. Strange looked agitated and about to fight him off and for a second Tony considered letting him. 

"I am - " 

The man started, voice cracking, thin and empty in apparent confusion. Another droplet of sweat rolled down the curve of his cheekbone. 

"This is -" 

His focus shot back and forth like reading invisible lines from the air between them. Tony grabbed his chin and forced him to look directly at him. Strange shuddered and blinked hard, finally managing to focus on Tony, looking even more tense than before. Like he was about to break. Tony wasn't sure he really wanted to see that. 

"It's uhh..." 

Strange's words were mumbled and his voice tight. He kept pursing his lips or biting them and probably feeling a numbness familiar to Tony from his own panic attacks. His chin trembling under Tony's fingers. 

"Just keep looking at me and keep breathing." 

Tony kept his voice strong, slow and clear. Like leaving footsteps for Stephen to follow. 

"There's nothing else you need to focus on right now. Look at me and breathe." 

He repeated, pausing between sentences to inhale and exhale in an exaggerated manner, prompting the other to follow his example. 

"Oh...Fuck -" 

Strange suddenly stuttered, breathing in a hurried panicked breath. Color drained from his face leaving him looking broken and cold, like without a warning he'd been dropped into freezing water. Probably a sign of realization. Strange hunched over as tremble shook his entire frame. He leaned forward, elbows on his knees. Dizzy. Tony understood. Pale eyes manically searched for Tony's warm brown ones. Strange sucked in shallow breaths like a drowning man, fingers gripping onto his knees, air hitching in his throat. 

"I d-didn't think..." 

"Yeah, well, I know the signs..." 

Tony held onto his arms and dared to lean a bit closer, just in case Strange would decide to pass out from all this fresh Space Oxygen. It was also probably a good idea to not let everyone in on this, if avoidable, block effectively any line of sight. That was Tony's reasoning. That's what he'd want. 

"Ok -" Strange groaned through clenched teeth, "Ok, me too - " 

Another set of shuddering gasps, leaving his throat sounding raw. 

" - Not usually on this side of the deal." 

The Sorcerer reached a hand to clutch at his own chest, seemingly trying to force his heart to catch onto this new rhythm faster. A pained grimace tugged at the corner of his lips as he squeezed his eyes shut. 

"Hey, eyes on me now, Houdini." Tony commanded. 

"Remember, none of this is optional." 

"Great." 

Strange did as told and raised his head opening his eyes, gaze settling on Tony. He struggled to keep up with the forced rhythm of breathing, occasionally giving in to hurried gulps of air. 

"I... definitely needed an even stranger nickname." 

Tony could feel his attempts to relax, lean muscles flexing and unflexing under his palms. He kept his attention on the patterns of breathing. 

"Yeah. Your head has been pretty high up in the clouds since I met you." Tony decided to keep talking. "Figured you needed someone to ground you, and since I had nothing better to do today..." 

Strange chuckled breathlessly and despite how broken it sounded, it made Tony feel stronger- or something akin to that. It was a bubbling feeling tickling his stressed nerves and telling him he was still alive and human. 

Then seconds ticked by, minutes, and neither of them moved. Tony kept up with his steady paced breathing, listening to every gasped breath and struggling to keep out memories of his own. He guessed the grounding effect must be mutual. It wasn't that hard to drown everything out by focusing on here and now, only focus on one thing. Tony prompted the other to keep his eyes open and on him by tugging his chin up again. He was honestly afraid that whatever Magical Realities Strange had seen could lurk behind his eyelids and undo the progress. The man looked exhausted. Sweat glistened on his skin, lips trembling when they weren't pinched together in concentration. 

"You're doing good. You're alright." 

Tony hummed soothingly, rubbing circles with his thumb onto clothed arms. The Sorcerer chose not to answer, which was probably best because Tony would rather not feel any more uncomfortably out of place than being confronted with what he had just said – way uncool - and he'd rather Strange spent his energy pulling himself together. Another couple breaths, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale... Now a bit more controlled without the choking gasps and overpowering wheezing. 

"Out of all people -" 

Strange whispered, shivering a bit more as the tension in his muscles crumbled into weak heaving breaths. The Cape, or whatever, rippled hauntingly against his frame as his eyes fell shut. This time Tony didn't bother telling him otherwise. 

"I know right?" Tony laughed. 

It sounded a bit hollower than he felt, so he resettled his fingers against the man's arms. 

"Who would've thought I'd be good with Humans as well as Machines." 

He gave a soft squeeze to Strange's biceps and the Cape answered him by ruffling its decorated edges against his knuckles. Interesting. 

"Bragging, even in space. Unbelievable..." 

Strange hissed with a weariness to his breathless voice. 

"UN-Believable? Ironically -" 

Tony let the last word linger lightly in the air without a meaning to finish the sentence. 

"You're The Tony Stark and I should know you better." 

Strange's voice was still quite choppy, some words cutting off into hiccup-like shudders. Tony just hummed. It took a good while but eventually the rhythm of their mutual breathing leveled out to a more comfortable one. Strange seemed a lot more present and aware, his eyes more focused. Scarred fingers had untangled themselves from the fabric of his trousers and now lay gently on his knees, trembling hard even if the tips of his fingers rested against a solid surface, Tony noted. He let the moment crawl on before sliding his hands down Strange's arms. He sat down on his legs but left his hands resting on the man's wrists. 

"Feeling a bit better, Chris Angel?" 

"Yes and no." 

Strange groaned, inhaling more calmly now. He shifted his weight to sit straighter, taking the pressure from his elbows and lightly rolling his neck to will away the tension. He took another calm breath and to Tony's surprise turned his hands, now palm side up against Tony's inner wrists. Before Tony could pull away Strange mirrored the gentle hold on his arms. Tony glanced down to their hands. This was probably a very welcomed sign of support when one was faced with the possible End of the World – And to his own surprise he didn't pull away, choosing to feel empowered by the contact. 

"Yes to feeling better. No to being called Chris Angel." Strange spoke. 

There was something reassuring in his gentle voice, although still tight and stretched thin, now much more in control. Tony turned his gaze up expecting to meet Mister Magic's cold eyes, but the man was staring down, inspecting their hands while apparently gathering the last bits of his mind. 

"Sure. My pleasure." 

Tony sadi, shifting his fingers. Some scars on the man's hands made their way down to where his fingertips lingered. This time when he raised his head Strange was looking at him. He looked somehow smaller and yet at the same time even more impressive in his weird Wizard clothes and combed back hair with silvery strokes on the sides, cat like eyes that had definitely seen more than others. Protector of the Universe. Keeper of the Time Stone. Master of the New York Sanctum. Tony was suddenly slightly star struck, that's the only explanation he could give for the feeling. He felt his own nervousness rise. Oh God, how he wanted to ask what Strange had seen. He wanted to know. Something, anything, to assure him he was doing the right thing. There was too much at stake here. A tightening feeling in his chest told him not to ask, that he didn't want to know, not really – or they'd go through what they just did but the other way around and that would probably be it. Or would it... 

He should just trust Strange. He could. In the lingering silence Tony realized his anxiety was probably very noticeable, not in the least by the way he kept inching his hands away from Strange's hold, yet not quite daring to let go. He tapped a nervous rhythm with his fingertips onto Strange's open palms before gathering the nerve to let go and drop his hands to his lap. Then he started babbling. 

"Look, I have no idea what I'm doing here. A moment ago I was just – just having the greatest time. A sunny day in the park with my fiancée - " 

Tony could have gone on for a while if Strange hadn't stopped him. 

"Tony Stark." 

He had to look up to meet the Sorcerers eyes this time. 

"It seems to me like you know exactly why you're here. " 

Strange said with a regained calmness to his voice. It stopped Tony in his tracks and an unreal peace rippled through him, followed by a weirdly fulfilling emotion that left him speechless. 

"Thank you, Tony." Strange reached out to pat his shoulder, shaking him out of his momentary daze. 

"Ok, let's have a look at those cuts on your head." Tony pulled himself together and onto his feet. 

"And before you turn me into a frog or whatever it is you do, I promised the sweet Alien Lady that I would at least check up on you, so you know it's not just me with a golden heart here, ok." 

Strange gave him a small smile and the Cape seemed to wave a corner at him in response, before snuggling its Master tightly.


End file.
